According to this report, the organic sector in the EU amounted to an estimated 7.6 million hectares in 2008, this is 4.3 of the agricultural area the 27 EU countries (EU-27). In the period 2000-2008, the average annual rate of growth was 6.7 percent in the EU-15 and 20 percent in the EU-12.
In 2008, the area under organic agriculture is close to or higher than 9 percent of the total agricultural land in five Member States: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Sweden.
In 2008, it is estimated that there were about 197 000 holdings involved in organic agriculture in the EU-27, i.e. 1.4 percent in the EU-12 and of all EU-27 holdings (0.6 percent 2.9 percent in the EU-15);
Consumer food demand grows at a fast pace in the largest EU markets, yet theorganic sector does not represent more than 2 percent of total food expenses in the EU-15 in 2007. In the EU-12 organic food consumption stands at lower levels.
More information
Document and links
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture And Rural Development (2010): An analysis of the EU organic sector. Brussels. Available at ec.europa.eu/agriculture/analysis/markets/organic_2010_en.pdf
- Organic-World.net: European statistics
- Organic-World.net: About Eurostat
Editor's note
According to the latest data the organic agricultural land continued to grow also in 2009, the data available for Europe are continually updated at this homepage.
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